Tick, Tick…Boom! (2021)
Review of Tick, Tick…Boom! (2021) directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’ve been a theatre kid ever since I was twelve years old and saw the tragic 2012 version if Les Misérables on the big screen for the first time. I never actually did theatre, despite going to an art school, because at the art school I went to you really couldn’t do anything outside of your major. I did take technical theatre as my elective, so I did get some of the nuts and bolts (literally, we were building massive sets) of the behind the scenes action. In college I did end up working in Off-Off Broadway, which, at the time of writing this, I’m still working with.
That being said, I actually didn’t know much about tick, tick…Boom! although I knew a lot about the writer of it, Jonathan Larson. He was the guy who wrote Rent, which many people know about because of the movie (and the fact that Idina Menzel was in it, naturally, because people go crazy for her in Frozen). But seeing this movie for the first time, not knowing what to expect…it was extraordinary. Let’s dive into this review.
tick, tick….BOOM! is a glimpse into the inner turmoil and life of Jonathan Larson as he turns thirty years old.
tick, tick…Boom! is about the life of Jonathan Larson, and it’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, of the Hamilton and In the Heights, debut as a film director. Larson wrote the book and lyrics for this, which is originally a theatre musical, before he tragically died at the age of thirty-five. Andrew Garfield is absolutely brilliant as Larson in this film edition.
I never knew Garfield could sing, but he seems to embody the sheer amount of anxiety and hope that Larson has for his career. Which, if you know how young he died, and the fact that Larson died the night before Rent premiered on Off-Broadway, it’s absolutely sad and enlightening to know how this story ends.
The way this story is told is that it alternates between a performance on the stage with Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens, and Joshua Henry. They’re performing the actual songs in the musical for a live audience, while the screen cuts between them performing and then the actual story part of this. Larson is about to turn thirty years old and in New York City, it seems like everything is slipping between his fingers.
He works at a diner and hasn’t found success as a theatre artist. Struggling to pay the rent, his roommate and friend, Michael, chooses to go down the corporate advertising path in order to actually make money, and then he moves out to a nicer apartment in Manhattan. Larson, however, tries and fails at advertising because he’s too creative. He sees the value in trying to go down the path, but he doesn’t want to do that. He just wants to be an artist.
And so he struggles, but also loses the relationship he had with his girlfriend Susan. It’s devastating to see their relationship fall apart because he’s consumed by his work and she can’t understand it. In the final climax of their relationship, they try to reconcile, but then she pulls away from him, crying, and says, “You’re going to turn this into a song, didn’t you?” And that’s when “Therapy,” one of the most well-known song of the musical, is playing.
There’s a lot to muse about with this movie. It’s about the life of an artist who feels like his time is running out, so he relentlessly pushes for his goals. There’s also the context of the AIDS crisis in NYC going on in the background, as Ross’ character has HIV and is hospitalized towards the beginning of the movie. We also get really close and personal with this when Michael emotionally reveals that he’s gay and HIV positive, adding this sense of the ticking clocking ready to go boom.
I think this is a movie for both theatre lovers and artists in general. If you’re not one of those in general, you’re going to think that your time window/frame for success is slowly closing the older you get. Larson’s story is one of many artists; its rare that someone is a child prodigy, like Edna St. Vincent Millay. Though some interesting for writers who get widespread acclaim at a young age—they tend to fade into obscurity. Millay’s later work is known to not be as good as the work she made in her early twenties.
There’s also this sense that the movie ends with the fact that Larson never truly made it in the main storyline. He got his workshop for tick, tick…Boom! but you have to know Larson’s story to truly appreciate it. Which makes it more for theater fans, because if you came into this movie completely blind, you’ll come out with completely different thoughts than someone who, for example, is a big fan of Larson or Rent.
Finally, this film is every theatre lover’s dream. The guy who plays Michael, Robin de Jesús, was Sonny In the Heights, while one of Larson’s coworkers at the diner is Ben Levi Ross. I screamed when I saw Ross; I have been a fan of them ever since they won YoungArts many years ago, and when they made it on Broadway for Dear Evan Hansen, I felt like a proud mama. There are also cameos by the original actors for Eliza and Angelica, André De Shields, and many other big names on Broadway for one big diner scene, which feels like the perfect tribute to the giants of contemporary theatre.
Overall Thoughts
I liked it overall! Garfield was an unexpected gem in this film, as I never knew that he sung. There’s pockets of humor, there’s the music aspect, and then there’s the part where it’s a success story that we all wish for. I think this was a good effort for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s debut effort as a director. There were some nice shots, but I don’t know how I felt about the alternating between the stage and the actual story. I think it adds an homage to theater as a live art, but I just don’t know. His friends dying and the clock ticking is something very relatable, even if you haven’t lived through the AIDS crisis, but I felt like HIV/AIDS part also feels kind of forced at times. Like Michael’s confession was coming, there was tension leading up to it, but outside of the other friend’s hospitalization it seemed like there wasn’t enough emotional impact to contextualize what was happening in these communities. That’s a whole different movie, but I think maybe if had a bit more about the crisis, then it would’ve had more impact (like a television running in the background?).
